Introducing Logos Bible Software 5

Bible study is about connection. The Bible connects us to the very words of God, and to study it is to make connections: between facts and feelings, texts and commentators, hearts and minds, ourselves and God and one another.

Logos Bible Software 5 is a significant update that is all about connection. Logos 5 connects the people, places, things, events, topics, and themes of the Bible with new and expanded databases. It is completely integrated with Faithlife, an online network for connecting your faith community, where you can share biblical insights, maintain a group prayer list, or read the Bible (or any book in your Logos library) in community with others. Logos 5 features new guides and tools for connecting the dots in your Bible study.

Experts have spent more than three years writing, editing, and tagging our unique databases of Bible knowledge. Dozens of books have been thoroughly tagged with special metadata about Bible outlines, preaching themes, historical events and Bible facts. Every original language word in the Bible has been reanalyzed and connected to new databases, while staying connected to modern translations. We have created nearly a million connections between our data elements and Bible verses.

All this connection is toward one end: helping you do more and better Bible study.

And, conveniently, all this connection makes that easier than ever before. In addition to powerful new tools for sermon preparation and topical study, Logos 5 contains many small updates and improvements that streamline your study. Logos 5 quickly becomes a transparent tool that gets all the overhead out of the way, so you can get connected to the Word.

Comments

I remember years ago I was told that upgrades to Logos/Libronix would be continue to be free. Once you bought the program, you would just need to add books as they were released, which I have added many. I forgot with which version Logos abandoned that promise. I have the Gold package with many additional books. Now they want me to “upgrade” to Gold again for another $468. I am highly not impressed. So much for promises. I am sure much labor went into ver. 5 and a workman is worthy of his hire, but this does not seem right.

Wayne, we’ve promised that you wouldn’t have to buy your books again, and that the software to read your books on new versions of the operating system would be free, so you wouldn’t have to pay to keep access to content you’ve already purchased. Since that’s a mouthful to say, some people have abbreviated that to “free upgrades to the software”, which is easier to say, and has effectively been the case. And it still is, and probably will be for a while.

The price you were quoted was for all the new content and resources in the Logos 5 Gold bundle. You can “upgrade” to any package — even “Starter” — and only pay for the new content in that package, calculated off of what you have already invested in.

If you don’t wnat to purchase new content, Logos 4.6a continues to be freely downloadable; we have even updated it in the past week and plan other future fixes and updates. And at some point down the road we will make the Logso 5 engine freely available, too.

I understand this can be confusing, and I apologize for that, but I want to assure you that our promise that you won’t have to pay to upgrade to keep access to your purchased content is still true, and will continue to be.

Bob, I have emailed you but let me say how incredibly disappointed i am with this. Like Wayne I own Scholars Gold. According to what I can find out the only way I can gain access to all the new features is to upgrade to a package I already own. Why can’t I just purchase the data sets? $400 for them is a rip off especially after I have spent so much already. As a loyal Logos customer I feel incredibly let down.

yeah. mark is 100% right. what gives? i don’t need any new resources. i would just like to buy the data/feature sets. on the website each data set has a “sold separately” price (when i hover over them on the upgrade page) even though you can’t buy them separately? seems like some serious bad marketing.

i also don’t appreciate the attitude that the sales rep gave me today when i called in to ask some questions. he wouldn’t really answer any of my questions and he just kept telling me to “upgrade to the gold package, it’s such a great deal.” sorry, i had an extra $650 laying around but i think i must have left it in my other pants.

over the years, logos has been my favorite company, hands down. the software is amazing. the people that i have dealt with have been very helpful. but today, i was really disappointed. it’s a real bummer…

Logos now has the minimal crossgrade available for Logos version 5. It includes the features and data sets of Version 5 and just a minimal amount of extra books that are needed by the features to make them work. Check it out!

I agree it is a big turn off that after i spent so much money on the Portfolio Edition that i am currently still paying for, if i want to upgrade to the new version i haft to pay over $2000 more & that would be over $5000 in that alone but if i was new to Logos it would be a little bit less, & i am happy with what i have but that upgrade fee is a ripe off & it hearts so see that additional price, it make it hard for me to refer my friends, you guys need to focus on making your existing customers happy, at tis point i don’t even know if i want to continue buying.

Since L5 is already available and many of use do not wish to change our current package (I am at Platinum), why not simply make the download available to us. It saves a lot of griping and misunderstanding.

Hi Bob,
So if i understand this correctly, I can upgrade to logos 5 (with all its new features) for the price of the starter upgrade package, yes? For me as a platinum user, that means $50. If so, that’s a lot easier to swallow than the $600+ platinum to platinum upgrade price.
If not, $600+ to upgrade is absolutely ridiculous. To be honest, I am completely content with the content i already have and thus wouldn’t care what comes with it for that price.
If so, then its awfully confusing. Why not just add an extra “upgrade” button that makes it clear that if i just want logos 5 with minimal or no extra content, this is the option to choose?

** So if i understand this correctly, I can upgrade to logos 5 (with all its new features) for the price of the starter upgrade package, yes? **

No.

I just recently upgraded from basic Scholar’s Logos 4 to Logos 5 Silver because I wanted the additional resources and Data Sets. Logos 5 Silver contains all of the new Data Sets–except one. But Logos 5 Starter has less than half of the Data Sets as compared to the next level up (Bronze). So for $50 you will the Logos 5 framework (which seems to run faster), and “some” of the new Data Sets. You would have to purchase the Bronze 5 version to get most of the new Data Sets, and Gold 5 to get them all.

Below is a link to the Logos comparison chart. Look at “Data Sets” close to the bottom and you will set the differences between the versions.

Chris, they are now offering a Minimal Crossgrade for purchase. I purchased this instead which gives me all the new features of Logos 5 and just the minimal amount of new content to run them. I still am on a current pay plan for my Logos 4, but this only added $8 per month extra on my current pay plan. I thought that was reasonable, so I purchased it. The one thing I like about Logos is that they offer many different choices that meet everyone’s personal needs, and I still got to keep and not pay extra for all my Leader’s version 4 content!! It is just as Bob said above.

I am confused about the number of features in each package of Logos 5. I currently have the silver package. The upgrade page shows different number of “features” for each package. Starter = 25; bronze = 46; silver = 49; gold = 52; platinum, diamond, portfolio = 53.

So if I “upgrade” from silver to starter am I going to miss out on some Logos 5 features?

I asked a sales person who said she did not know. And when I click on the “more” buttons on the upgrade page I get 404 errors or says the server is being maintained.

Bob,I recognize that you have to make money to continue to develop. No problem with that.

But your Logos 5 announcement page asks us to join 1.3 million users. If you charged $10, 20, 30 or so for the upgrade, and all users took you up on it, that would be somewhere around $13 million, $26 million, or $39 million in upgrade fees. Probably all would not upgrade, but there is a price point where most/many would. How many millions do you need?

If your upgrade prices were more reasonable, I doubt you’d be getting all this negativity.

Dear Bob,
I appreciate your response to the myriad of questions and the anxiety expressed by many Logos users. I would however, suggest that what has been placed on the website is confusing and leaves current users suddenly wondering about their previous purchases. Your reply answers my questions, butI was also concerned when I could not find a Logos 5 engine. For those who began in the mid-90′s with 3.5 inch floppys and the progression of Logos to Libronix to Logos 4, we have had our share of joys and sometimes frustrations. We appreciate the product for its exellence, but understand that many of us have made major investments of our limited resources to acquire it.

It would be helpful to current users (and therefore to Logos) to update the available information on the website to better communicate this as an opportunity rather than the perception of many that it is yet another example of planned obsolescence.

Thanks for responding this past week and staying engaged with all the input and response to the NEW 5.0 logos.

I have been a user (trying to find a 10 step program to recover from my Libronix years) for over 15 years now and have spent close to $5k through upgrades, book buys, commentaries, etc. over the years. No doubt putting my money to wise investments and has been a good return!

Not sure what the 5.0 is all about? I agree with many of my fellow brothers in our Lord below about why we can’t just simply have a fee for the option of 5.0 software! Can’t this be considered more fully?

I understand your decision matrix, but perhaps profit can still be considered with another option?

“While we were learning the discipline of putting profit first, we used this same technique. We physically set aside our minimum profit margin from each day’s sales out of that day’s cash receipts. By immediately taking the profit out of our working cash, we protected it against erosion from unexpected expenses. We were forced to track sales and costs more closely and to be more careful in our planning because the funds allocated to profit were taken out of the equation. In the course of each year, our overall profit still varied but rarely below that set-aside minimum.” chpt. 10 in “How to fire someone”

Finally, is there anyway you can set up an on-line comparison of NEW packages with the ACTUAL books I own. You have taken the first step in this with looking at the LAST package I upgraded to and used that as a compare – but I have bought nearly a hundred books outside of my package over the years! Please look into this option if possible…

Congratulations on the new version and upgrade; the look and feel of the new Verbum 5 package is absolutely first-rate. I know your team worked hard to bring this to fruition, and they are to be recognized.

Reading through the comments on the blog, I sense a great deal of frustration on the part of many users. I am not sure I have any answers to address the cost of resources–this is an issue of justice for the workers at Logos (and many of them could probably take their considerable skills somewhere else and make more money) and the right to make a fair profit in a very complex product line. The same stresses that are upon the manufacturers of analog media resources (books, journals, newspapers) as they “go digital” are no doubt being worked out before us in this transformation from analog biblical studies to digital formats, and I am certain that we will have a few more struggles to find economic models that are sustainable for companies and for their customers.

In every discussion I have ever had with a Logos employee, I always felt respected and appreciated, and shared a common hope that the pricing for these wonderful tools would always be within the reach of the student, pastor, priest, or deacon struggling to make ends meet. I think they still are, but I also know from personal experience that my desire to transform more and more of my books into digital formats has to be managed and disciplined. I guess that’s a great problem for Logos, but it’s something I have to keep on a budget!

I also want to commend the move to providing more solutions for Catholic leaders. The production of the Catechism of the Catholic Church has been a real tipping point for many new customers who are Roman Catholic, as many of my Catholic colleagues (I am a former Protestant, and have been a passionate Logos user from the start of the company) are starting to leverage the software in their work. This is a wonderful thing. Our diocese in Colorado Springs is one of the first to have our Deacon Aspirants (students) use Logos in their training. As I am their professor for several of the biblical studies courses, this is a good thing–we are using the harmonies for our Synoptic Gospels course, and this is quite helpful.

Having said all this, no one in this conversation doubts that there remains room for improvement. I think the tool that is needed (and it seems a bit confusing about whether it exists now or is coming soon) is a Library Manager that syncs with current and future product offerings, one’s purchasing history (most of my books have been purchased that way), and that would tell people easily what books they have, aligned with what books are offered in a special package or new upgrade, and quickly calculate a custom price, or allow individuals to only purchase those new books and the platform upgrade. The way books are sorted in the library tools right now versus the ways they are listed in the marketing pages of the website, it seems like it’s a challenge for customers to line up “apples to apples” comparisons, and there appears to be an assumption (unwarranted, I may add) that somehow Logos is profiting unfairly on these ambiguities. I think that’s probably behind some of the frustration on these posts.

Finally, I want to commend Greg Hoerter and his team for their excellent customer service, patience with hundreds of my questions, and willingness to provide custom service for a long-term user of your fine products. I wish you all the best in the success of this great enterprise.

Sincerely,

Deacon Rick Bauer
Diocese of Colorado Springs
Logos user from the very beginning

Hello Wayne Wells, I don’t know you, but I do remember the same thing being said as well. I’ve had logos software every since 1.0, so I go way back with Logos! I appreciate Bob Pritchett clearing up the confusing. My only problem when I wanted to upgrade tonight was that the sales rep. wanted me to upgrade for $2,400 dollars. I’ve invested in a pretty extensive library with Libronix over the years and to shell out an additional $2,400, without really explaining what was included, seemed a bit outrages. I don’t mind purchasing the new version for reading my books, but $2,400 dollars. NOT IN THIS LIFE TIME :)

I still use Logos 3 daily and have never really been happy with the upgrade that i did to Logos 4. I can’t see paying for another upgrade while I still like version 3 better after a couple of years of running both in parallel; I’ll not be upgrading this time.

From what I heard the engine would eventually be available, but some of the features would be unavailable. Kind of like the free version of an app vs the paid version on your phone…. I do not like what I see. Maybe it would make better sense to continue the upgrade policy rather than develop a way to limit it – just one more place for it to go wrong or slow down…

Server load first off. It’s actually to everyone favor that you have to wait for the people with the largest libraries who are buying even larger libraries to down load the program first. This will keep the bandwidth from dragging everyone’s down load and causing additional issues. If we cannot be patient waiting for the cross grade do we really think we will be patient waiting hours for a download?

I would support Mark Stevens, Ray Timmermans and Jim Smith above here too; And I might add: Some of us have worked for making a package available for our students (Orig Lang), and the amount they had to pay was ca 200 dols. And now, a few weeks later, if they want to upgrade to the same level (Bronze), they have to pay another 200 dols to get the Bronze version. Incredible frustrating! I don’t know how to argue for that with my students!

I also find it very confusing that you have skipped the older names like Original Language version, Scholars version etc. Don’t you want the attention of scholars anymore?
I do hope I have misunderstood something….

I own the Scholars Library and have acquired over 4,500 books, but to get the basic “Starter Upgrade” I now have to pay an additional $256. From there the prices go up over $2,700. How very disappointing.

Thank you for Logos. It has helped me tremendously. however I too am disappointed. I will wait for Logos 5 to become a free download. I am willing to pay for an upgrade of the software but not the whole package again, even with the 49% discount! I’ve paid for the books once, why should I pay for them again? Or am I missing something?
I also live in hope of a cross platform version so I dont have to have so many computers!

I have many thousands of resources and thousands of dollars invested in Logos, dating back to early times of the garage in Oak Harbor. I have been a faithful “up-grader” through Libronix (which I love as a system and continue to use whenever possible) through Logos 4 portfolio. I was, and still am, disappointed that you ceased issuing new resources as optional in the Libronix format. I am forced instead to have some in Logos 4 format only, whether I like it or not. I forsee that at some point in time new resources will only be in Logos 5 (or whatever higher number is to be then in vogue). So be it, I guess. I find the added resources for me in the version 5 up-grade to simply not to be worth the added investment. I am saddened that the evident need for Logos as a business venture to veer somewhat away from the concerns of missionaries and small church pastors. Bigger and the “cutting edge” is not necessarily better.

Why do people always expect free stuff? Logos spends millions of dollars to improve their software. Somebody has to pay for it. Very few companies can afford to give away free software. In all the years, I’ve used logos, the’ve never stopped you using your old version and never forced you to buy a new package. I’m sure they will provide the base software as a download as they have in the past but it won’t have the new features and new tagging. Grow up, stop whining and be grateful that we have a great piece of software like logos. We could all still be using paper books and spending hours still searching.

i don’t want it for free. that wouldn’t make any sense. i’d pay a hundred bucks for the engine and the new features. but i don’t want to have to buy new resources as well, just so that i can have the engine. that doesn’t make any sense to me. i already have the resources that i want, thousands of dollars worth.

If I am not mistaken I only paid $99 to upgrade from Libronix DLS to Logos 4. Now, a little over a year later, it will cost me over $450 to upgrade from Logos 4 to Logos 5 (I’m a Silver user). There is no denying that the switch from Libronix to Logos 4 was a major and substantial upgrade. The integration with other devices (i.e. iOS), the totally redesigned interface, the added books, and the reasonable price made the upgrade a no brainer. I understand Logos is a business and businesses exist, at least in part, to make money. However, if they want anymore of my $$$ it would need to be in a reasonable ballbark to my budget (and other preacher’s that do not want to go in debt to purchase software). Maybe instead of trying to push out a new program so quickly they could have used less people to do the work over a period of 5 years instead of 3. Logos 4 is powerful. It had a “vow factor” over the previous version. Logos 5 over Logos 4, not so much (especially when you consider the price).

** If I am not mistaken I only paid $99 to upgrade from Libronix DLS to Logos 4. Now, a little over a year later, it will cost me over $450 to upgrade from Logos 4 to Logos 5 (I’m a Silver user).**

Shane, I believe there is a misunderstanding.

I just recently upgraded to Logos 5. If you have Logos 4 Silver, you DO NOT have to upgrade to Logos 5 Silver. You can simply purchase the Logos 5 “Starter” version for around $50.00 (I think) and you will NOT lose anything. You will get the new Logos 5 framework and “some” of the new Data Sets. Additionally, all of your current resources will transfer straight into the Logos 5 Starter version.

In other words, Logos 5 Bronze, is actually an upgrade from Logos 4 Silver (functionality/performance wise) because you get to keep/transfer the resources you currently have and get the 5 framework as well as some of the new 5 Data Sets.

It will not cost you $450.00 to upgrade from 4 to 5. You do not have to upgrade “Silver 4 to Silver 5″ in order to get many of the Logos 5 benefits.

Many are under them impression that going from(say)Silver 4 to Bronze 5 is a “downgrade” — but that’s not the case.

I love Logos but I’m afraid I will join the chorus of loyal customers who are very puzzled at this latest update. I have spent thousands of dollars on logos books over the years. To have to pay $458 for my special update price just to receive the data and feature updates seems very excessive to me. I’ve checked the New Books “just for me” … some I already own … like NAC Commentaries. I’m not sure if I’m being encouraged to repurchase books I already have or purchase books I don’t want. Either way, its a big disappointment. And no, the payments plans are not for me. I’m already on two payment plans for book sets I really wanted. I don’t want a third payment plan for books I don’t want. I sure hope Logos will change this soon.

Logos … Can’t we purchase the new data and features for a fair price without all the other stuff. I don’t mind paying for updates. A lot of work goes into them and they are usually very worthwhile updates. I am sure Logos 5 is great … would love to download it today and don’t mind paying for it.

I agree that the cost of this upgrade is too expensive. My Silver upgrade is over $240. I only wanted to re-download version 4 as I having issues with my current software and now I cannot retrieve my existing Silver package. I do not see I can justify the cost, especially as I continue to build my resources with other purchases. Seems a bit greedy to only offer a 15% discount on exiting customers

I checked out the Logos 5 offer today. I liked what I saw in the video, but I was a bit surprised at the upgrade price for going from Version 4 Gold to Version 5 Gold (close to $500). I read all the posts and can definitely understand the various sentiments being expressed. After considering everything I read, including the responses from the Logos team, I looked at the Starter version, which would only be a little over $50 for me. I can see it would give me a number of new resources, some of which I am interested in, but I see it has less than half the features of the Gold version. What is more, I already have many of these features in my Logos 4 Gold version, and I certainly do not want to loose capability. I am not sure I am prepared to spend nearly $500 to upgrade to the Logos 5 Gold version at this time, so is there any way to get the full feature set without purchasing hundreds of dollars worth of resources?

Why does there seem to be so little information about what is new in versions 5? This makes me suspicious. All the info seems to be about upgrading packages and all the new books you get. What is different about the software?
The only thing I can see is a video called “Whats new in Logos 5?”
I don’t like this current trend to try and present all information as videos, they are annoying. Please present in clear concise text, concise paragraphs or point form or even a table. I don’t want to have to watch videos to find out what is in the new version and will not even consider it until I can find out reasons why in written form.

I love Logos and use it almost daily. Both with my English and Spanish books. I wish I could upgrade only the software engine. I have all the books I currently need. If that is not possible, I will not upgrade. I am quite happy with version 4.

After re-reading this over and over I think I finally understand the upgrade options. Yes you could get the starter upgrade package of “Logos 5″ for $45 but you would only get 1 of the 9 data sets. To get all 9 you would need to upgrade to Gold which is $478. Now you get about 100 new books out of the Gold upgrade that you may or may not want at about $4.78 per book. That’s not a bad price, but I’m not sold on the upgrade features or the books in the upgrade. I wish you could create your own bundle package.

Ok. So…we had this wrong. Logos released version 5 without all of the details about crossgrade upgrades (upgrading without buying any new resources) in hopes that we’d all upgrade to the gold package. I think that the backlash on these forums made them come to their senses and release all of the info that we need. We will be able to upgrade for under $100, just not yet. And the logos 5 engine (with no new features) will be released for free. I’m really excited to see that Logos is the company that I thought they were – they just had a little marketing hiccup. As a matter of fact, I’m really impressed that they obviously read through this stuff and they’ve responded to the confused and angry customers. That’s really awesome and it’s greatly appreciated.

jonB, THANK-YOU for providing this link. And yes it did clear a lot of things up and it sure brought my negative thoughts to a grinding halt. I to am glad that Logos is the company I thought they were. There was just not enough info when they 1st released it. Thanx again for your help.

** they just had a little marketing hiccup. As a matter of fact, I’m really impressed that they obviously read through this stuff and they’ve responded to the confused and angry customers. That’s really awesome and it’s greatly appreciated. **

You are correct. I upgraded to Logos 5 last week and was fully aware, at that time, that I could get the Logos 5 cross-grade framework/engine for free if I wanted to wait a bit.